“Conyers might fail to qualify for ballot”

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who stands to become the longest-serving member of Congress if he wins reelection this year, might not even qualify for the ballot.

According to a new report in The Detroit News, two more people who gathered signatures for Conyers are not registered voters in Michigan. Two others who were previously identified as not having been registered now appear in state records as having registered on Monday — well after the campaign’s signatures were submitted.

Michigan requires those circulating petitions to be registered voters in the state, and Conyers’s primary opponent, Rev. Horace Sheffield, is challenging the signatures on those grounds.

It’s worth pointing out that some courts have held that residency requirements for petition circulators are unconstitutional.